It might have been the manager Brendan Rodgers, the captain Steven Gerrard, the club psychologist Steve Peters or members of the board – in fact, it may well have been all of them.

But who could have imagined this summer, with Suarez serving a 10-match ban for biting Branislav Ivanovic and wealthier clubs beating down the Anfield door, that Suarez would now be regarded as the most in-form footballer on the planet while still a Liverpool player?

You only had to witness Suarez’s performance against Hull on New Year’s Day to realise that something has changed within the Uruguayan.

It is not just the sublime skills and supreme finishing – those have always been apparent.

It was the fact that it was clear Hull were kicking the Liverpool talisman from pillar to post. And not only was Suarez refusing to react – he was thriving on it.

Suarez picked himself up, dusted himself down and curled home an exquisite free-kick after one such foul.

(Image: Clive Brunskill)

Strikers don’t get battered like they used to but it can still be a brutal business, even in this more sanitised era. The likes of Chopper Harris and Norman Hunter would have had to be a lot more subtle about their dirty work if they played now or they’d never last 90 minutes.

I know from grim experience that you simply have to be able to block out such intimidatory tactics.

You must set your mind not to react one iota. You must realise that the only answer is to score a goal, hopefully two or three, to shake their hands at the final whistle and say ‘well played’.

And somehow, somebody at Liverpool has helped Suarez reach that state of mind.

Even though he – wrongly – felt victimised by the English football establishment for his biting ban, which followed his previous suspension for the Patrice Evra incident two seasons ago.

Even though, without Champions League football, Suarez seemed desperate to get away from Anfield last summer.

For the board to hold firm and keep hold of Suarez when Arsenal were offering forty million and one quid was one thing.

But for Rodgers and his staff to cajole the player to even greater heights, despite having denied him a move, is really quite exceptional.

In scoring against Hull, Suarez equalled Andy Cole’s record as the fastest man to 20 goals in a Premier League season – taking just 15 games to reach the landmark.

One or two of us may have done likewise in the Land That Time Forgot – a competition called the Football League Division One, which ran from 1888 to 1992 and was pretty similar to the Premier League, except that there was less money.

But the remarkable thing about Suarez is that he matches his sheer weight of goals with a tendency for fantasy football.

I doubt whether anyone in the history of English league football has scored 20 goals of such quality in the space of 15 matches.

In fact, Suarez is looking so good that you’d have to fancy a cheeky fiver on Uruguay winning this summer’s World Cup.

When a player is in such irresistible form, winning matches virtually single-handed, it only needs a couple of other good players to play above themselves and the rest of the supporting cast to perfom consistently and you can end up winning a tournament.

It’s what happened to Diego Maradona and Argentina and, on their own continent, I can see Uruguay doing the business.